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Simba Hybrid Essential mattress review: Performance and comfort
As with its pricier stablemates, the Simba Hybrid Essential arrives vacuum packed and boxed on your doorstep. Because of its thinner design, it doesn’t expand so much when you cut away the plastic packaging but there’s still an unmistakable chemical smell that you get from most foam-based mattresses. As such, it’s worth leaving it to air for a few days if you have a very sensitive nose.
Contrary to the pictures on the Simba website, there are no handles on the Hybrid Essential mattress sample I was sent for review. However, thanks to it being thinner and therefore lighter than its stablemates, I found it relatively easy to manoeuvre. Between two adults, moving a king size onto the bed shouldn’t be a problem, although handles wouldn’t go amiss.
In terms of firmness, the Hybrid Essential is not drastically different to the more expensive models in Simba’s range, which is to say that I’d describe it as medium-firm. However, that comes with the caveat that you’ll need to use it on a solid base if you want to benefit from the maximum level of support.
As can often be the case with thinner mattresses, when I used the Simba Hybrid Essential on a sprung slatted base, I noticed the levels of support diminished substantially when lying on my back. I weigh around 75kg so, if you’re lighter, that might not be such a problem for you, but for heavier people, it’s definitely worth keeping in mind.
If you sleep mainly on your side, the softer feel you get from this type of bed might go unnoticed, as its yielding nature means it’ll better accommodate the shape of your hips. However, when used on a solid foundation, I found the Hybrid Essential both comfortable and supportive in all sleeping positions.
As for temperature control, I thought the Essential coped relatively well, especially when you consider it doesn’t have the temperature-regulating wool layers of the premium Simba Hybrid Pro and Simba Hybrid Luxe. Better still, the mattress didn’t excessively change in the support that it delivered as the comfort layers warmed up.
When used on a solid base, I had very few complaints about the mattress, except that it lacks some of the subtlety you get from pricier models. That isn’t altogether surprising, though, given that this is pitched as an entry-level mattress.
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Simba Hybrid Essential mattress review: Verdict
In many ways, then, the Hybrid Essential performs just as you’d expect an entry-level model would. Despite the thinner design, it delivers a decent level of comfort and support when used on a solid foundation. There’s just one problem, and that’s the price. At £1,000 in king size, it’s prohibitively expensive for anyone looking for a truly affordable mattress.
With a price tag that’s only £150 higher, the regular Simba Hybrid is clearly the much better value offering and an all-round better choice. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a competitively priced hybrid with a lengthy trial period, you can do much worse than the Eve Lighter Hybrid.
